Iran to remove U.N. seals at atomic research sites

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said on Sunday it was preparing to remove U.N. seals at some nuclear research and development sites, despite strong Western opposition to its decision to resume atomic work halted more than two years ago.

It would be the second time in five months that Iran, which the West suspects is bent on building atomic bombs but which insists its nuclear program is peaceful, lifted some seals put in place by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

European union" and U.S. officials have said the move, which follows Iran's resumption of uranium processing at its Isfahan plant in August, will jeopardize efforts to find a diplomatic solution to Iran's nuclear ambitions and heighten calls to refer Tehran to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions.

"We will remove the seals and we have announced that we are ready to start research from tomorrow," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told a weekly news conference.

"It depends on the IAEA to announce its readiness as this will take place under the agency's supervision," he added.

IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said two letters the Iranians sent to the U.N. watchdog agency after it called for explanations about the new plan had not resolved key questions.

"The letters contain some detail but what we need is a lot of detail to prepare our inspectors. We've asked Iran for more," Fleming said. She declined to describe what detail was needed.

ALARM IN THE WEST

However, she noted that IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei "has consistently said that this suspension is conducive" to ongoing IAEA probes into the nature of Iranian nuclear work, which Tehran hid from U.N. inspectors for almost 20 years, raising alarm in the West.

A resumption of atomic fuel research and development (R&D) would mean that all of Iran's nuclear program, much of which was put on hold as part of negotiations with the EU that started in late 2003, was active once again apart from the enrichment of uranium at its unfinished Natanz plant.

Uranium enrichment is the most sensitive part of the nuclear fuel cycle since it can be used to produce bomb-grade material as well as fuel for civilian nuclear reactors.

Iran has not publicly disclosed what activities it plans to resume on Monday. Diplomats and analysts say atomic research and development could involve some laboratory tests of uranium enrichment and assembly of centrifuge enrichment machines.

"R&D activities will be under the IAEA's supervision and there is nothing to be worried about," Asefi said.

However, diplomats close to the IAEA said ElBaradei had warned Iranian envoys that the R&D revival undermined attempts to resolve Iran's stand-off with the West diplomatically.

"If Iran unilaterally breaks the seals, no one could depict the IAEA as being handmaiden to this act, endorsing it," one diplomat told Reuters.

The diplomat said the move would prompt a report to the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors. "The members are really anxious to know what is really going on with this R&D. Their reaction will determine whether we go to an emergency board meeting or not."

ElBaradei told Sky Television in an interview to be aired on Monday that the world was "running out of patience with Iran."

"VERY WORRYING"

Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik, whose country has just taken over the European union" presidency, told visiting European journalists Iran was "a very worrying situation indeed."

She said the EU had made it clear to Iran that, far from increasing confidence in the peaceful intentions of its nuclear program, the announced decision to resume nuclear research and development was "the wrong step in the wrong direction and is a cause of very serious concern."

The next regular IAEA board session is set for March 6. Since Iran declared the R&D moratorium over, Western diplomats have privately mooted an emergency meeting within weeks.
Tension in the crisis has been fanned by denunciations of Israel by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a "tumor" that should be "wiped off the earth," and his dismissal of the Holocaust as "a myth."

Washington and the EU want Iran to agree to a proposal, put forward by Moscow, that Iran transfer all its uranium-enrichment activities to a joint venture in Russia.

Russian and Iranian officials met in Tehran at the weekend to discuss the plan but Iran has made it clear it will only consider ideas that allow it to carry out enrichment on its own soil.

"The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin."

Yup.... lots of discussion these days on the "Seven Seals" and the "4 Horsemen"....

"What are the Seven Seals?

The Scroll with the Seven Seals originates from The Throne of God in heaven (Revelation 5:1), they are given in heaven to Jesus Christ for Him to open (Revelation 5:5-10), but they happen on earth (e.g. Revelation 5:10, 6:4).

Although the opening of each seal in turn has a spectacular result, the seventh seal is far greater because it is divided into seven trumpets, and its seventh trumpet is further divided into seven bowls (or vials). The Return of Jesus Christ occurs during the events of the seventh trumpet (see also The Shofar).

The first four seals are commonly known as the "four horsemen of the apocalypse."

The First Seal - Religious Deception and Persecution
"I watched as The Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, "Come!" I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest." (Revelation 6:1-2)

The Second Seal - War
"When The Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, "Come!" Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other. To him was given a large sword." (Revelation 6:3-4)

The Third Seal - Famine
"When The Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Come!" I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, "A quart of wheat for a day's wages, and three quarts of barley for a day's wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!" (Revelation 6:5-6)

The Fourth Seal - Pestilence
"When The Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, "Come!" I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth." (Revelation 6:7-8)

Then, terrible persecution of the Saints

The Fifth Seal - Tribulation and Martyrdom
"When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of The Word of God and the testimony they had maintained. They called out in a loud voice, "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until You judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?" Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed." (Revelation 6:9-11)

Next, great Signs In The Heavens

The Sixth Seal - Signs In The Heavens
"I watched as He opened the sixth seal. There was a great Earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from The Face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of The Lamb! For the great day of Their wrath has come, and who can stand?" (Revelation 6:12-17)

And then the Seventh Seal, with its seven trumpets, and seven bowls. The last three trumpets are known as the "three woes."

The Seventh Seal
"When He opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets." (Revelation 8:1-2)

The First Trumpet
"The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down upon the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up." (Revelation 8:6-7)

The Second Trumpet
"The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed." (Revelation 8:8-9) See A Huge Mountain, All Ablaze

The Third Trumpet
"The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water - the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter." (Revelation 8:10-11)

The Fourth Trumpet
"The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night." (Revelation 8:12)

The Fifth Trumpet (First Woe)
"The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss. And out of the smoke locusts came down upon the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. They were not given power to kill them, but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes a man. During those days men will seek death, but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them. The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces. Their hair was like women's hair, and their teeth were like lions' teeth. They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and Chariots rushing into battle. They had tails and stings like scorpions, and in their tails they had power to torment people for five months. They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon." (Revelation 9:1-11)

The Sixth Trumpet (Second Woe)
"The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the horns of the golden altar that is before God. It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates." And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind. The number of the mounted troops was two hundred million. I heard their number. The horses and riders I saw in my vision looked like this: Their breast plates were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow as sulfur. The heads of the horses resembled the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke and sulfur. A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of their mouths. The power of the horses was in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails were like snakes, having heads with which they inflict injury. The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood -idols that cannot see or hear or walk. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts (see Witches And Sorcerers), their sexual immorality or their thefts." (Revelation 9:13-21)

The Seventh Trumpet (Third Woe)

The First Bowl
"The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the land, and ugly and painful sores broke out on the people who had the mark of the beast and worshiped his image." (Revelation 16:2)

The Second Bowl
"The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it turned into blood like that of a dead man, and every living thing in the sea died." (Revelation 16:3)

The Third Bowl
"The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood. Then I heard the angel in charge of the waters say: "You are just in these judgments, You who are and Who were, The Holy One, because You have so judged; for they have shed the blood of Your saints and prophets, and You have given them blood to drink as they deserve." And I heard the altar respond: "Yes, Lord God Almighty, true and just are Your judgments." (Revelation 16:4-7)

The Fourth Bowl
"The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and the sun was given power to scorch people with fire. They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed The Name of God, Who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify Him." (Revelation 16:8-9)

The Fifth Bowl
"The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was plunged into darkness. Men gnawed their tongues in agony and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done." (Revelation 16:10-11)

The Sixth Bowl
"The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the East. Then I saw three evil spirits that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet (see articles in our Prophecy section). They are spirits of demons performing miraculous signs, and they go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty. "Behold, I come like a thief! Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed." Then they gathered the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon." (Revelation 16:12-16). See Armageddon

The Seventh Bowl
"The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and out of The Temple came a loud voice from The Throne, saying, "It is done!" Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since man has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake. The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with the wine of the fury of His wrath. Every island fled away and the mountains could not be found. From the sky huge hailstones of about a hundred pounds each fell upon men. And they cursed God on account of the plague of hail, because the plague was so terrible." (Revelation 16:17-21) "

Behold! I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work... Isaiah 54:16